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Baby Bathtub Burn
Location: Clio, Michigan Date: February 18, 1992 Story Jackie Rose was home with her three kids while her husband, Randy, was on his way home from work. She and her six-year-old daughter, Misty, were doing the dishes while her four-year-old daughter, Leslie, and fifteen-month-old son, R.J., were in the living room watching TV. Minutes later Leslie came into the kitchen, saying she wanted to give R.J. a bath. Jackie said no and to go back into the living room and wait for her or Misty to come out. Leslie ignored her and decided to do it anyway. Leslie took R.J. into the bathroom and turned on the water. She noticed it was hot and tried to turn it down, but the tap was one of the old dial ones and she placed it in the 11:00 position. Instead of cooling the water down to lukewarm, she heated it up to scalding hot. Leslie placed R.J. in the tub just as Jackie and Misty finished the dishes. Jackie sent Misty to check on them when they heard Leslie's screams. Misty raced to the bathroom to find R.J. covered in burns, which looked like toilet paper. She turned off the water and used her knowledge of burns that she learned in school by watching the companion video to this episode, using a towel to extract R.J.. She then called Jackie, who raced to the bathroom and screamed when she saw the burns on R.J.'s body. Jackie called Randy, who pulled into the driveway minutes later. Then she called 911 and the Clio Fire Department was dispatched. While they were waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Jackie called her best friend and neighbor, Robin Miller, and told her to come and calm R.J. down. Robin said she tried to do so by looking at his face and not the burns because he was in extreme pain. Three minutes later, the ambulance arrived and EMT Peggy Riddell got out. She had no time to check R.J.'s vitals and saw that he was starting to go into shock. She took him from Robin, placed him in the back of the ambulance, wrapped him in a burn sheet, covered him with saline IVs to return moisture to his skin, and hooked an oxygen tank up to him so he could breathe as his chest was burned. It made things difficult to do so and to get him out of shock. R.J. started crying the moment they resuscitated him. Robin tried to calm him down, but he was in so much pain that it was hard for him to communicate with them. The ambulance stopped at the station to pick up paramedic Paul Wallace, a burn technician who was trained in advanced life support. He climbed in and opened the sheet. Then he diagnosed that 75% of R.J.'s body was burned. He had first degree burns on his neck and chest, second degree burns on his arms and legs, and third degree burns on his back and abdomen from his stomach to his genitals. Minutes later the ambulance arrived at Hurley Medical Center, where Dr. Margaret Conley treated him in the Emergency Department. He was placed in the Burn Unit and transferred to Pediatric ICU where he recovered in a body cast undergoing skin grafts to repair his damaged tissue. Randy met him at the hospital and cried when they told him about R.J.. All they could do was pray and hope as he rested. Somehow he made it through the night and spent four months in Pediatric ICU recovering. R.J. was released from the hospital in June. He will never forget the day Leslie burned him with the bathwater and carries the scars for the rest of his life. Dr. Conley stated he will require more corrective plastic surgery, but he should be able to lead a more normal life. Category:1992 Category:Burns Category:Michigan